A southern hemisphere mother writes about the world

Antipodes

I’ve been reflecting, during the World Cup, at how good we Australians are at watching sport in the middle of the night. But it’s part of being a sports fan, here. We’ve grown up watching pretty much any world class sport in the middle of the night. Think Ashes tests, Wimbledon, US & French Open tennis, Olympics, FA Cup finals, various Golf tournaments etc. etc. And of course the World Cup of Football.

When I lived in London, I suddenly realised that the rest of the world doesn’t really do that. Although every now and again there is something on the other side of the world, it’s not a standard part of being a sporting fan. A combination of a lot of Australians being fanatical enough about sport to actually watch something in the middle of the night, and that there is very little world sport actually happening in our own time zone.

Just that, by itself, probably gives the average Australian a much better appreciation of the size of the world than people in most other countries. We’re not necessarily any more cosmopolitan, but we know from an early age, that exciting things happen in other parts of the world. ____________________________________________

For myself, I have never gone without sleep to watch golf (or even watched it voluntarily), but I have gone without sleep to watch everything else on my list above. And I’m not that much of a sports fan, really.

Advertisements

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

One Response

When I was on holiday in the UK during the (northern) summer of 1993, I found it a very dislocating experience to be able to watch Wimbledon during the DAY. It just wasn’t right, somehow. My world didn’t return to normal until I got back home to Sydney and saw Jana Novotna choke in the final and sob on the Duchess of Kent’s shoulder at 1.30 in the morning our time.